Marketing campaigns typically involve campaign activities directed at prospective customers. Before launching the campaign, there usually is created a target group that identifies each of the prospective customers so that the campaign activity can be directed at them, for example by letter or email. The target group typically is created by automatically searching existing customer records for those prospective customers that meet a specific criterion.
Campaign management systems can include a segment builder component that can be used in modeling and creating target groups. First, a user formulates a customer profile that can be applied to the customer list to identify those that meet the specific criteria for being included in the target group. The user must be familiar with different attributes associated with the customers because the segment builder component requires the user both to identify the attribute that should be used and to enter a valid attribute value that is to be used in selecting the prospective customers. The customer profile typically is revised several times so that the target group will have an acceptable size.
Existing solutions for target group generation may have disadvantages. It can be difficult or impossible for a person without expert knowledge to create a target group. Some searches may require use of customer attributes that are unique to the database of customer records and which are may not be familiar to a member of a marketing department that wants to create the target group. Moreover, creating the customer profile may require advanced skills in how to formulate a logic query or how to search a database. These disadvantages may deter some users from learning and using the segment builder.